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Thread: Traditional tail vise

  1. #16
    I have round dog holes. But thanks for the info. I have already squared up the cut out in the bench top. I’m working on cutting the dovetails in the outer frame.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    441
    Last year I finished the Lee Valley traditional workbench (shamefully, it only took me 17 years).

    I used the older Lee Valley tail vise screw, which is larger, but still operates the same way. Unfortunately, I found the instructions and even the design to be very unclear. The best instructions that I found were Chris Gochnour's article "Build a Stout Workbench" in the 2018 FWW Tools & Shops issue. The description and photos were very clear and I felt his vise jaw design was simpler and easier to execute than I had seen elsewhere. A close second was ShopNotes instructions on tail vase construction.

    http://www.shopnotes.com/files/issue...mple-40-41.pdf

    I had considered changing course and using the Lie-Nielsen tail vise hardware. However, I dismissed it since I already had vise hardware and I found that the Lie-Nielsen tail vise installation required some very precise, deep mortises to be routed and drilling and tapping into both the workbench top and the tail vise chop. I'm sure it works much better, but installation is not necessarily easier than a traditional tail vise mechanism.

  3. #18
    I haven’t seen the Shop notes article that’s good info thanks

  4. #19
    Tony,

    Hopefully this link is not disallowed, but here is a set of plans for a traditional tail vise. Not sure if it'll help at all, since it sounds like you are rebuilding rather than building new.

    https://www.thetraditionalcarpenter....ion-and-plans/
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Princeton, NJ
    Posts
    7,254
    Blog Entries
    7
    I used a milling machine for the LN cutout, you can do a glue up also. It’s a great tail vise, I enjoy using it.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Sioux City, IA
    Posts
    804
    Blog Entries
    3
    The effort and patience of many of you is impressive. Mine has a large quick screw vice on front and a smaller one on the tail with both fastened with lag bolts. They work well, but admit that they don't sport any kind of 'look" compared to the photos I see on this thread.

    I'm going to stick with the old Shaker saying "Beauty lies in function" - only because it may make me feel better about it.

  7. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bussey View Post
    Thought I would show a couple pictures of the finished bench

    Attachment 404270Attachment 404271
    Tom,

    That is a nice looking bench!

    Hard to tell from the pictures, but on the wagon vise side it looks as though the dog row is above the cabinets. Have you found the dogs difficult to pop up at all? Every time I think about putting a cabinet under a bench I end up not doing it mostly for that precise reason. Sort of looking for an excuse to build one with built in tool storage, but don't want to sacrifice ease of function.
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  8. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Tony Mize View Post
    I have round dog holes. But thanks for the info. I have already squared up the cut out in the bench top. I’m working on cutting the dovetails in the outer frame.
    If you're not averse to a jig, you might take a look at William Ng's video on this.

  9. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Sean Nagle View Post
    Last year I finished the Lee Valley traditional workbench (shamefully, it only took me 17 years).

    I used the older Lee Valley tail vise screw, which is larger, but still operates the same way. Unfortunately, I found the instructions and even the design to be very unclear. The best instructions that I found were Chris Gochnour's article "Build a Stout Workbench" in the 2018 FWW Tools & Shops issue. The description and photos were very clear and I felt his vise jaw design was simpler and easier to execute than I had seen elsewhere. A close second was ShopNotes instructions on tail vase construction.

    http://www.shopnotes.com/files/issue...mple-40-41.pdf

    I had considered changing course and using the Lie-Nielsen tail vise hardware. However, I dismissed it since I already had vise hardware and I found that the Lie-Nielsen tail vise installation required some very precise, deep mortises to be routed and drilling and tapping into both the workbench top and the tail vise chop. I'm sure it works much better, but installation is not necessarily easier than a traditional tail vise mechanism.
    Sean,

    Seventeen years? I'm sure that was a typo and it should read 17 weeks.

    Where are the photos?

    ken

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    441
    No typo. Actually, it's worse than that. I think I started my workbench over 23 years ago. I got the trestle built fairly quickly and had started on the top core. Around that time, I ran across a cheap 5' solid maple butcher block counter top slab. That went onto the trestle and became a basic workbench. I went on to build lots of other stuff instead of the workbench.

    I think I read on this forum once that traditional workbenches have fallen out of favor because of the difficulty in building them. I think I agree with that. This traditional workbench was a lot easier for me to build with some 25 years of experience than it was with only a couple.

    Anyway, finally got it done last year. Here are a couple pics.

    Workbench.jpg

    Tail Vise.jpg

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    South West Ontario
    Posts
    1,502
    Fine bench Sean, you must appreciate how much better it is to work on. I’m not sure a traditional bench is more difficult to build than a Roubo, it is easier to move than a roubo. The oblong dog holes are more work than just drilling round ones but so fundamental to the bench it’s time well spent.
    ​You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!

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